LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County hospitals are once again seeing a marked increase in the number of coronavirus-positive patients requiring their care — triggering new concern that health care systems could once again come under strain unless the region gets its arms around the latest resurgence of the virus.
The case rate in the nation’s largest county is now high enough to land it within the “medium” community level outlined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Reaching this category, the middle on the agency’s three-tier scale, “is concerning, since it could signal that the increases that we’re seeing in our COVID cases could soon put pressure on our health care resources,” said county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.
L.A. County is one of 14 California counties within the medium community level, and the first in Southern California. The majority of the others are in the San Francisco Bay Area.
